BLABBERIN' BLATHERSKITE
A CUSTOM GIZMODUCK TOY FOR CHRISTMAS
I think most dads would back me up when I say it's a special moment when you're able to share something from your childhood with your kids.
Even more so when they seem to enjoy it as much as you did. That's how things went down in our house when I decided to pull up some old Ducktales episodes. It was a major staple of my youth, ranking right up there with Saved by the Bell or TMNT. I think most kids who grew up properly in the 80s and early 90s would agree. And anyone who knows a lick about Ducktales knows it's series standout hero, Gizmoduck; the super suit wearing alter ego of lowly accountant, Fenton Crackshell. So you can imagine my excitement when my 4 year old son took an immediate interest in the show and started asking for a Gizmoduck toy for Christmas.
The problem came when I started looking around - turns out that, other than this 2" tall, single mold, poor excuse for a toy, they never made a proper Gizmoduck figure. What kind of world are we living in?!
In my searches, I came across others who felt the same and decided to craft their own versions and it inspired me to try my hand at one as well. I had absolutely no experience in toy making (which will become painfully obvious as you read on) - I'm not even very good at fine arts of any kind - but with a resource like the Internet, how hard could it be, right?
I felt like my first step was to find a good base toy that had most of the structure I wanted, and then I could simply Frankenstein some pieces together to round him out.
FULL DISCLOSURE:
I started with this Corps Elite soldier that I found at Walmart and thought could work (plus he was only $4). But as I started to get into the process, I was just discouraged with the amount of disconnect I felt between where I was going and where I wanted to be.
With a bit more looking, I came across an Iron Man Super Hero Mashers figure that had some of the exact qualities I felt like my initial character was lacking.
This guy felt so much stronger as a starting point. His head shape better allowed for a beak, his hands felt dead on, and his general body armor seemed to be in line as well. The other bonus to the mashers is that they are designed to pull apart into pieces, making it a little easier to paint and assemble.
$9.99 at Walmart.com
Next I had to get a beak. My mother had a set of old happy meal style toys with a lot of looney toons characters. To my great luck, a Daffy Duck had the perfect sized honker! I borrowed a buddy's Dremel tool to cut off and shape the beak.
$1.49 at Etsy.com
I then started to test out the paint and source a wheel to replace his legs. I found an old motorcycle toy in my sons toy box that no longer worked properly and saw very little playtime and decided it would be a great way to give it new life.
I found a link to one on Amazon, however it's much more expensive than we'd ever spend. It was a beat up old broken toy. Im sure with some looking, a cheaper option could work just as well or better.
$39.99 at Amazon.com
I forgot to take shots of the original toy before cutting it up, so the shots with red forks I took later, after they had been painted.
I continued to base out and paint the majority of the body. I used premium acrylics for pretty much all the painting. I found for the white specifically, it took multiple layers to really get a solid coat, which tended to leave more visible brush strokes, and a was a tad tacky to the touch when fully dry. So for the body and head, I did an initial base of white spray paint, using painters tape to block out the areas I wanted to stay black.
$5 - $7 at DickBlick.com
$1.83 at EssentialHardware.com
Final touches were next. Painting his head, goggles, touching up his beak, painting the forks red and gluing in place, and adding white to his shoulders. I also found an old missile that I attached to his arm for good measure. I did opt not to do some of the very fine details due to a lack of a steady hand and concern over screwing up what I already had. However, his logo was absolutely necessary. For that, I simply printed it on an inkjet printer and glued it to his chest (the sealing spray I used in the next step also helped to keep this from peeling).
For a final sealer, I used a Krylon spray. It was a matte finish to keep that nasty gloss from creeping in, helped seal on the logo, and it helped to unify the mixed textures between the body pieces. Another big plus is that it neutralized some of the tackiness of the acrylic paint.
Because this was a gift, I needed to wrap it in a box somehow. I'm not super proud of this one as it was a last minute rigging, but I took an old apple keyboard box and trimmed it down to one of the compartments. I used the starburst backplate that came with the Iron Man base character to bring a little bit of color in. Finally I just printed out a quick label and wrapped it along the bottom.
LOOKOUT BEAGLE BOYS, GIZMODUCK HAS ARRIVED!!
FOLLOW UP:
In less than 24 hours, my son had broken off the beak, missile and the wheel came loose. No real surprise; my son knows how to properly destroy factory made toys so what chance did my diy project stand? I simply reglued the pieces (excessively generously this time) and he continued his crusade to protect Duckburg from the forces of evil! Quackerooney!!